Antiwar.com Blog

Chris Albritton went to an Ahmed Chalabi press conference today and this is what Chalabi says:

Chalabi: I was attacked this morning, but I’m fine, thanks.
Question: Can you tell us about the counterfeiting charges against you and the murder rap against your nephew?
Chalabi: Oh, those… (chuckle.) They were reduced to a summons. I went to the judge (al-Malaki) today and all charges have been dropped against us.

Chris is rightly mystified as to when and how the charges were dropped. It also helps explain something I was wondering today. Why was Chalabi going to the National Assembly session today? I seem to remember a bit of a stink about him being dropped from the thing after the counterfeiting charge. What about the Iranian spy business?

Really. No proof. I mean, the Iranian government is a little weird, but do you think they’d hire a guy whose fondness for reality rivals Osama bin Laden’s love of pork chops?

No wonder Richard Perle digs convicted embezzler Ahmed Chalabi so – they’re two perps in a pod:

Press tycoon Conrad M. Black and other top Hollinger International Inc. officials pocketed more than $400 million in company money over seven years and Black’s handpicked board of directors passively approved many of the transactions, a company investigation concluded.

A report by a special board committee singled out director Richard N. Perle, a former Defense Department official, who received $5.4 million in bonuses and compensation. The report said Perle should return the money to the Chicago-based company.

Please note that this is a company investigation, not a politically motivated waste of taxpayer money.

The new report, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Monday, added details of what it called the “corporate kleptocracy” Black and Radler created at Hollinger. It said they treated the company as a “piggybank” and fashion accessory, with Black using the prestige of the newspapers to gain access to the wealthy, powerful and royal.

For example, the report said Black and his wife, Barbara Amiel Black, treated the Hollinger corporate jet as a private shuttle between cities such as Chicago and Toronto and vacation spots. They took frequent trips to Palm Springs and one 33-hour round trip to Bora Bora, which cost the company $530,000, the report said. It also said Black charged the company $90,000 to refurbish a Rolls-Royce, and used $8 million in company money to buy memorabilia of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, about whom Black wrote a book.

Could that corporate-statist thief FDR have any better disciple?

I just came across this statistic, reported by the Guardian, source – US military –

The army reported 2,781 deserters in 2003 and 1,470 in the first five months of this year, according to Lieutenant Colonel John Jessup, who collects army desertion data for the Pentagon. This makes up less than 1% of the enlisted soldiers; far lower than the average of 5% during the Vietnam war years, a fact explained largely by the absence of a draft for this war.

That seems pretty high. 1,500 deserters in FIVE months? Why isn’t anyone talking about this? Another way to look at this is that with 7,000 wounded, 4,000 deserters and 1,000 killed, the US military is 12,000 soldiers short of it’s numbers when it invaded Iraq.

Turkey moved against the Kurdish separatist rebels in Northern Iraq today, killing eleven PKK rebels. Two Turks were killed in the action.

Turkey has long threatened to take out the PKK themselves, after it became clear that American promises to “deal with” the rebels wereall talk and no action.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul reiterated a call for the United States to take action against Turkish Kurdish rebel bases across the border in Iraq.

“Of course, we expect international cooperation in this issue,” Gul told private NTV television. “But we know how to deal with our enemy.”

Asked whether Turkey would consider boosting forces in northern Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels, Gul said: “We would do whatever is necessary for our security.”

Turkey already has 1,500 troops backed by tanks and other armor in northern Iraq to monitor rebel actions and prevent cross-border infiltrations.

Gov. Erdogan Gurbuz of Hakkari province said two soldiers and 11 rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, now known as KONGRA-GEL, were killed in the clashes that began Saturday.

An official speaking on condition of anonymity said over 1,000 Turkish troops have participated in the offensive. The troops, backed by U.S. made helicopters, were chasing the guerrillas near the city of Hakkari, where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey meet.

Turkey is home to an estimated 12 million Kurds. Half of them live in the southeast.

Kurdish rebels had waged a 15-year war for autonomy, in which some 37,000 people were killed. They declared a unilateral cease-fire in 1999 after the capture of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, but ended it after five years on June 1, saying Turkey had not responded in kind.

Rebels intensified attacks in the southeast after calling off the cease-fire, killing more than 20 Turkish soldiers or police. Turkish troops have killed more than 60 rebels in the same period.

Turkish authorities blamed the rebels for bombings earlier this month of two small hotels and a liquefied petroleum gas plant in Istanbul that killed two people and wounded 11 others.

Turkey has ruled out any dialogue with the rebel group, considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department and the European Union, and vowed to maintain its military drive until all rebels surrendered or are killed.

The US has refrained from moving against the PKK because it will anger the Kurdish population of northern Iraq, the only ethnic group that is pro-American, and in the only region that is even slightly peaceful. Attacks against the occupation and those perceived as collaborators, as well as ethnic clashes in the north have continued relentlessly while the eyes of most of the world were glued to the drama in Najaf.

It took him a little more than the 24 hours one emailer predicted, but G.W. has indeed waffled on yesterday’s proclamation that we can’t win the terror war.

In his best impersonation of Matt Hasselbeck, George has now promised a victory he can’t possibly deliver. The question yet remains, will it be a costly interception, or are we just waiting for the turnover on downs?